My Prayer During Holy Week

Lest I forget Gethsemane;

Lest I forget Thine agony;

Lest I forget Thy love for me,

Lead me to Calvary

- Jennie Evelyn Hussey

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2

I Can’t Believe How Wicked Ahaz Is…(2 Kings 16:1-4)

Ahaz is a wicked king.

He begins his reign at an early age, being only 20 years old (v. 2).

He reigns for 16 years.

16 years of sheer wickedness.

Listen to how he is described:

• “And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done” (v. 2)
• “He walked in the way of the kings of Israel” (v. 3)
• “He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel” (v. 3)
• This is disturbing. If Ahaz shares in those abominations, will he not share in their judgment?
• “He sacrificed and made offering on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree” (v. 4)
• Notice the third person singular pronoun “He.”

This leads to what is perhaps most alarming about Ahaz – there is no mention of the Davidic covenant. In fact, it has been quite some time since we have read of the Davidic promise in regards to Judah.

Recall Abijah in 1 Kings 15 with me.

Here is another wicked king but there we are told, “Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong” (v. 4).

Recall Jehoram in 2 kings 8.

He was wicked but we read “Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendents forever” (v. 19).

For Ahaz, instead of being reminded of the Lord’s promise to David we are reminded of the Lord’s driving out of the nations before the Israelites.

Things do not bode well for Judah.

There is a great gathering of darkness in Judah.

At this point we are tempted to wag our heads and put on our “angry, scornful, self-righteous” eyes and glare at Ahaz in disbelief.

But beware!

Thomas Watson, a Puritan minister of many years ago had this to say:

Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think thus: ‘God means my sins;’ when it presseth any duty, ‘God intends me in this.’ Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it be applied.

When you read of Ahaz and his sinfulness remember the sovereign God’s description of you:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” Ephesians 2:1-3

The same evil heart that is in Ahaz is in you.

Given the right circumstances, you are just as capable of doing what Ahaz did.

If you fail to realize that then great is your pride.

When you read of how sinful Ahaz was, remember the words of Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am…” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

There is a great darkness gathering in Judah. There is a great darkness gathering in your heart “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Did you hear how wicked Ahaz is?

Did you hear how wicked Andrew Manwarren is?

Did you hear how wicked you are?

BUT GOD!

“We are more wicked than we ever feared yet more loved than we ever hoped.”

 

 

Triplets!

Below is a link to “thelopezblog.” It is an invitation to “laugh, cry, and smile” with the Lopez’s and will mostly consist of “stories, reviews, and snapshots of what a day looks like with six children ages 4 and under.” Of interest is their recent adoption of not one baby, but triplets!

Click here to go to their website.

Love and Friends

Great thoughts here from Jeff over at his anti-itch meditation blog:

The number of friends you have does not show you how loving you are.

It seems we forget that. We define love our way and then use our own measurement tool to determine how loving we are. We look at our results, the number of people who like us, and we draw conclusions as to how loving we are.

If I have more friends than you then, obviously, I am more loving than you are. And if you have more friends than me, well, I better try to love a little harder then, eh?

But love does not always keep friends. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you” (Luke 6:26). Being accepted by everyone is not a sign of good things.

The proper application is not to go out and be a jerk, however. The proper application goes like this:

Love is honest and brutal, it works out of truth. When you live and share the truth with people it doesn’t always go well. People hate the truth and they’ll hate you for representing truth.

Don’t consider it a strange thing if people hate you, they hated your Savior too. If you are one of the Savior’s kids, there’s no way everyone will like you. No way.

They killed Jesus and He was love personified; never forget that. Love is not friendliness at all costs. Love is the ability to act out of truth because you have a love for the souls of those around you.

How Love Begins…

I can remember as a child my mom or dad quite often saying to me, “Look at me when I am talking to you!” Now as a father, I find myself repeating this to my daughter! Why is this so important? Because listening must start with looking. That’s when I know I have your attention.  That’s when I know you care.  Sadly, I’m not always the best example.  Sometimes I come home from work and Alexis starts talking to me and I have my eyes glued to my computer saying something like, “Uh-huh, that’s great, Alexis.”  When I do this, Alexis gets irritated because I’ve made the computer more important than she is.

But Jesus was different.  He looked at people.  Paul Miller, from his lesser-known book, Love Walked Among Us, says:

As I studied how Jesus loved, I was surprised by the number of times that Jesus looked at people.  Altogether the Gospels mention Jesus looking at people about forty times.  I was particularly struck by how often his compassion for people was preceded by his looking (see Mat. 9:6, Mark 10:21, John 19:26-27).

So how do we become more like Jesus?  Ironically, Miller continues,

If we know we are loved — that someone is looking at us — then we can give love; then we can look at others.

The Greatness of the Love of Christ

Do you love the Savior? Do you really love him? Here is an article that will test your heart. It was quite convicting to me. I pray it will be so to you. Here is how it starts:

When our great Savior ate with Simon the Pharisee, and a sinful woman washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, the Lord approved of her actions, assuring her of free and full pardon, and taught the proud Pharisee that all who have been forgiven much will love much in return, even as this woman had shown such love to him (Luke 7:36-50). For many pages now, we have been exploring the boundless dimensions of the surpassing love of Christ, and have glimpsed the staggering greatness of even the hinder parts of his free forgiveness and matchless grace. Everywhere we have turned, we have been dazzled by the further unfolding of new vistas of glory and grace in the love of the Savior, and if we have learned anything at all, it is only this, that an eternity will not suffice for us to discover all the riches we have treasured up for us. But having been so loved, dear Christian, and having received so free and immeasurable a pardon, how ought we to love in return? Will we not wet the beautiful, nail-scarred feet of the Lord with our own tears of wondering gratitude? If we have no tears for those feet of condescending love, which staggered to Golgotha bearing all our sin and shame, then we do not know the love of Christ. But all of us who have glimpsed such a love, let us cast ourselves down with our sister, this despised and sinful woman, and open up our own fountains of gratitude to bathe the feet of the Savior of the world!

If we have been loved by the Lord, we will love in return; but if we love, how will our love be shown? What will it compel us to do? What must they who love the Savior do that is different from what they do who do not love him, but rather serve out of grudging fear or slavish duty? There are many ways by which true religion may be counterfeited by hypocrites, but the litmus test that cannot fail is sincere and overflowing love. It would therefore be to our advantage, before we leave this study, to consider in brief just what this responsive love to the Savior looks like, and how it is that we may know if we are showing ourselves to be sons of his love, and not just slaves of fear.

Here is the full outline:

(1) They who love the Savior long to be with him.

(a) In prayer

(b) In reading of the scriptures

(c) In the preaching of the word

(d) In the sacraments

(e) In the gathering of the saints

(f) In death to sin

(g) In the coming world

(2) They who love the Savior long to please him.

(3) They who love the Savior will strive to imitate him.

READ THE REST NOW!

Like what you read? See more at my blog!

Are We In Love With God Or Just His Stuff?

The following is taken from Crazy Love by Francis Chan pages 62-63. Take a moment to look over it and examine heart:

If someone asked you what the greatest good on this earth is, what would you say? An epic surf session? Financial security? Health? Meaningful, trustful friendships? Intimacy with your spouse? Knowing that you belong?

 The greatest good on this earth is God. Period. God’s one goal for us is Himself (emphasis mine).

The Good News – the best news in the world, in fact – is that you can have God Himself. Do you believe that God is the greatest thing you can experience in the whole world? Do you believe that the Good News is note merely the forgiveness of your sins, the guarantee that you won’t go to hell, or the promise of life in heaven?

The best things in life are gifts from the One who steadfastly loves us. But an important question to ask ourselves is this: Are we in love with God or just His stuff?

Imagine how awful it would feel to have your child say to you, “I don’t really love you or want your love, but I would like my allowance, please.” Conversely, what a beautiful gift it is to have the one you love look you in the eye and say, “I love you. Not your beauty, your money, your family, or your car. Just you.”

Can you say that to God?

Our love for Him always come out of His love for us. Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you? Do you really know and believe that God loves you, individually and personally and intimately? Do you see and know Him as Abba, Father?

 

 

Loving Your Neighbors

Matthew 22:36-40 – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

John Alexander, one-time president of InterVarsity, gave this piercing comment to a group of students, “What have you done this past year to make a helpful difference with a mile of your home?”  We so often talk about the need for missions to reduce pain and suffering and bring the gospel all over the world but what about our own backyard? The truth is there are needy, helpless, suffering, friendless people within a mile of your doorstep, within walking distance, perhaps even right next door. What can you do right where you are? What are you doing right where you are? Let us take to heart what Jesus said to a man He had set free from demons, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:19). Look around you through the eyes of Jesus and you’re sure to find many lives to help and comfort – now GO!